Pseudopus

Pseudopus is a genus of anguid lizards that are native to Eurasia. One extant species remains, the sheltopusik, with four fossil species. They are the most robust members of subfamily Anguinae, with the largest species †P. pannonicus growing up to 2 metres in length. The oldest fossils of the group date to the Early Miocene, but there are possible Oligocene records.

Pseudopus

(c) Ryan van Huyssteen, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Also called
legless lizardPBDB
Sits inside
AnguinaePBDB
Diet
insectivore, carnivorePBDB, for Anguidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At least 22 million years on record.

The record covers at least 23.04 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 27.3 Mya to 11.7 ka.

Oligocene — about 3 of 111 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 69 of 111 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 27 of 111 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 12 of 111 occurrencesPleistocene28–27 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 1 occurrence22–21 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 2 occurrences19–19 Mya — about 2 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 2 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 3 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 8 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 5 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 5 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 3 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 3 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 4 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 4 occurrences10–9.3 Mya — about 3 occurrences9.3–8.4 Mya — about 5 occurrences8.4–7.4 Mya — about 7 occurrences7.4–6.5 Mya — about 6 occurrences6.5–5.6 Mya — about 5 occurrences5.6–4.6 Mya — about 6 occurrences4.6–3.7 Mya — about 10 occurrences3.7–2.8 Mya — about 10 occurrences2.8–1.9 Mya — about 8 occurrences1.9–928 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences928 ka–0 Mya — about 4 occurrences23.04 Mya129 ka27.8 Mya0 Mya

111 occurrences of Pseudopus on record, most of them in the Miocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

111 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

13 formations

Upper Freshwater Molasse — 48.44°N, 11.04°EUpper Freshwater Molasse — 48.63°N, 11.80°EUpper Freshwater Molasse — 48.57°N, 12.00°EUpper Freshwater Molasse — 48.50°N, 11.09°EUpper Freshwater Molasse — 48.60°N, 11.08°EUpper Freshwater Molasse — 48.16°N, 10.11°EReuver clay — 50.90°N, 6.45°EWiesbaden — 50.04°N, 8.27°EMost — 50.42°N, 13.36°EVille — 50.90°N, 6.45°EGaverdovsky — 44.61°N, 40.03°ELaa — 48.42°N, 16.38°ELefkon — 41.17°N, 23.50°EColombacci — 44.22°N, 11.77°EDetritic-Carbonated Unit of Subirats — 41.42°N, 1.81°EKarboliya — 45.99°N, 28.30°EKarbolia — 45.53°N, 28.44°ESpilia — 41.15°N, 23.48°E

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The named rock units Pseudopus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 85 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Pseudopus and its relatives

Miocene

Where Pseudopus and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

1,065 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 90 sites for Pseudopus, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

45 references

Each of the 111 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 33 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Pseudopus

Credit
(c) Ryan van Huyssteen, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Pseudopus was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itAnguinae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Merrem 1820